Method of manufacturing ornamental articles



Jan. 9, 1940. E. E. Hows l 2,186,381

IETHOD 0F- MANUFACTURING ORNAMENTAL ARTICLES Original Eiled Jan. 27, '1936 Patented Jan, 9, 1940 UNITED PATENT? lolii-"ICE" Application 4.tammy 27, 193s, serial No. 60,924

- Renewed June 8, 1939 The object of my invention is toprovide a method of manufacturingornamental articles which is simple in form and greatly lessens the time required in the manufacture of same, thereby greatlyreducing the cost.'

The invention relates more particularly to a method of manufacturing ornaments or decorative articles made of thin sheetsjof metal foil.

, The metal rfoil ornaments vare made of a multiple v number of leaves and sewed together, after which the leaves arefopened up from the line of sewing. Various methodsof manufacture havebeen used in the pastin making this type of ornament,

one of them being to gang numbers of plies lof y the metal, so that with each stroke of the punch press, which is used for stamping out the various 'rshapes, many stampings are obtained. v

After the stampings are made, it has been the practice to take whatever number of leaves are desired in the finished ornament and fit them together by hand before yrunning them through' the sewing machine operation where the leaves' are permanently assembled together. This method of hand assembly, particularly where it is necessary to matchvedges closely (as, for instance, in star or bell shapes or anything except a true circle) is slow and expensive, and it is the purpose of my inventionl to greatly reduce the 'time and costof such4 manufacture.

My novel method of manufacture will be more easily understood by reference to the accompanying'drawing, in which Figure 1 is a view showing the method of feeding the ribbon material from spools into the punch press. IFigure 2` is a plan` View ofy the lower part of the die assembly, showing the ribbon material passing through. Figure 3 is an elevation of the die assembly, partly in' section, lshowing the pinning operation. Figure 4 is an kenlarged viewof the ribbon material, the

plies of which have been pinned and riveted together. Figure 5 is a perspective View of' the nished ornament assembly. Figure 6 is a view` showing a modified form ofroller feeding of the material and pinning thereof. y In Figure 1 the vmaterial to be used in the manufacture of the ornament or decorative 'article is fed into the punch press l from a multiple number of spools 2, 3 and 4, only three of said spools being shown.A It `must be understood, however, that any number ldesired maybe used,

depending'of course, on the number of leaves desired in the finished ornament: K'

Thespools of stockmaterial would be supported upon a rack, not shown, so that the material would be unwound from the revolving spools vcommis. (c1. i1-.11) Y i .y

. f i t; as required. The layers of material, after-leaving the spools, are brought together and the rst operation in thepress is one 'of pinning the multiple number of leavestogether. `This is accomn plished by means of r'anumber of pin punches 5,5555

6 and 1, which are fixed to the punchpart 8 of the die assembly 9.y 4` The ribbons ofv material I0,

Il and l2 from the feeding spools, upon entering the press,I are pierced with the kpinning punches as the punch part of the die assembly descends 1Q upon the die part.v The pin punches, which' have pointed ends, enter small `holes i3, I4 and I5 in kthe plate vH xed to the lower part of the die assembly;

The material usedin fthis type of article is 15 usually a semi-hardv aluminum and the punch pinsare sopsha'ped that in piercing they drag the metal down into the holes in the lower plate. As

the material progresses through the die, a stripper plate I1 with a slight spring pressure exerted 20 by light springs llll and llly presses. down upon the material and rivets over thematerialwhich has been dragged down into the holes by the punch pins operation, as shown at 20, 2l, 22 and 23.

This pressure of this stripper plate temporarily 25 rivets the multiple number rof material leaves together, so that when the punch 24 stamps the v desired shape of ornament it is now a complete unit and ready for the sewing operation and requires no hand fitting and assembly whatsoever. 30 The dies used in thestampng 'operation outside of the special mentioned pinning and flatteningv operations, are of usual construction having guide posts 25` and 26 and guides 21 and 28 for properly aligning the spool material as it is fed 35` through the press. It must be understood that konce the4 material has started into the press the piercing and flattening and stamping operations are all done with one stroke of the press, l

While the method just described shows a hand 40 feeding of the material through the press, it may be desirableto provide an automatic feed. This feed is byfmeans of rolls, which is standard practice, and the movement is synchronized with the movement of-l the press; that is, the metal is 45# rolled or drawn forward at the proper time. Ink Figure 6 I have shown a modified formv of pinning Varrangement inthe wayof rolls, through which the material is drawn before it reaches the press. One of the rolls would have protruding punch pins and the other wouldhave recesses to allow the punch and drawn down material to enter therein. With this roll method it may not be necessary to have. a iiattening operation interposed between therolls and the punch of the 55.

die, but should same be required, it could easily be provided.

One of the simplestnished ornaments, after it has had the sewing and the opening up operations, is shown in Figure 5, the points of pinning being shown and also that the sewing operation usually follows the line of pinning, so that the small holes are not noticeable. However, following such, a procedure, while preferred, is not essential. K

While in the foregoing method of manufacture we have used the foil material itself to rivet the several leaves of the ornament together, it may be desirable to use'other methods of fixing the plies, such as the use of rivets of relatively soft material or a Very light wire staple. The use of such means would not interfere in any way with the sewing operation which follows.

From the foregoing description, it is clearly apparent the enormous saving in time obtained by using this method, which necessarily means greatly reduced cost of manufacture and an article of improved appearance. Other methods to produce the same results may suggest them- .25 selves to one skilled in the art, but I do not wish to be limited to what is shown and described except as pointed out in the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. The method of manufacturing ornamental articles consisting of fixing of multiple leaves to be used together at several points, stamping the shape desired, sewing multiple leaves permanently together and opening same alongthe line of sewing.

2. I'he method of manufacturing ornamental articles which consists of feeding a number of thin strips of foil in superposed relation, temporarily `fastening them together on a median line, then punching the multiple strips into desired shapes and then permanently stitching the assembly along said median line.

3. The'method of manufacturing ornamental articles which consists of feeding a number of thin strips of foilin superposed relation, temporarily fastening them together on a median Aline 'and then-punching the multiple strips into desired shapes, and permanently stitching the assembly along said median line, leaving a length of the stitching thread for an attaching string. EARL E. vvI-IOWE. 

